Cold Email

One of the first things we hear from potential clients is:
“How do you know cold outreach will work for us?” 

Or:
“We’ve already tried cold emails and LinkedIn DMs… no results.”

But here’s the part of cold outreach no one says loud enough:

• It’s not your subject line.
• It’s not the length of your email.
• It’s not because you didn’t follow up enough.

Your cold outreach is failing because it’s misaligned – with your offer, your audience, or your entire go-to-market approach.

So what can you do about it? Let’s break it down.

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Your offer isn’t good enough

Cold outreach is just another sales motion. If none of your sales motions are working (not even cold calling or inbound follow-ups), the root problem usually isn’t in the channel. It’s your offer.

But even the “offer challenge” is more nuanced than it seems, so we’ve grouped it into three core categories:

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You don’t have product-market fit

This happens all the time with early-stage companies. 

You may see some early wins: clients are signing up or you’ve landed a few small, one-off projects. But that doesn’t mean your offer resonates with your actual ICP.

In fact, we’ve worked with companies that had over 60 employees and raised multiple funding rounds, but they still didn’t have product-market fit. They were building and selling a product that their core target market simply didn’t want or need.

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Fix: Iterate your product. Cold outreach can actually be a great way to test features. List 10 features you’re considering, send a separate cold campaign for each, and see which one gets the most interest. Let the market tell you what they want and then tweak accordingly.

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You’re not describing your offer well

Even when product-market fit exists, many companies fail to describe the value clearly. If someone reads your email and doesn’t understand what you’re solving in two lines, they’re gone.

Fix: Experiment with how you frame the offer. Test different phrasing in your emails. 

One version might say "we built an AI tool for faster outreach," another "you’ll cut 10 hours of sales admin work weekly." 

Tiny changes in framing can have a huge impact.

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Your offer isn’t ready for outbound

Inbound leads are warm – they know who you are. Outbound prospects don’t. If you’re asking for $500 up front without context or brand familiarity, most will say no.

But if you say, "Try it free for a month. We’ll even help migrate your data so you can compare it to your current tool," they might say yes.

Outbound offers should reduce friction. Make it low-risk for the buyer.

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Cold outreach isn’t built for long sales cycles

If your product has a long sales cycle (months, not weeks), a basic outreach sequence simply won’t work. 

You can’t expect a decision-maker to respond to a cold email, hop on a call, and sign a six-figure deal for a complex solution that impacts their entire organization.

Take a company offering enterprise compliance solutions. Their clients risk millions in fines if things go wrong. These prospects aren’t just buying a tool. They’re buying trust, expertise, and long-term support. That kind of relationship can’t be built in three emails.

So, what can you do in this case?

You need a granular go-to-market playbook that builds familiarity and trust over time. We’re talking about:

• Monthly newsletters
• LinkedIn retargeting
• Webinars tailored to different roles
• Content that educates and reassures

Let’s break it down in more detail.

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Warm them up before outreach

On average, a B2B decision-maker will consume roughly 13 pieces of content during the research and consideration process before making a purchase.

So, let’s say you have a list of 10,000 target companies. Before sending emails:

• Upload their contacts to LinkedIn Ads
• Run brand awareness campaigns
• Share free resources, testimonials, or video ads from your CEO

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Let these ads run for 1-2 months. Then, when you finally email them, they’ve seen your brand 3-5 times. You’re no longer a stranger.

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Reframe outreach as part of a longer journey

Instead of asking for a meeting right away, say: "We just launched a private resource we haven’t released publicly yet. Want a sneak peek?"

They say yes → you send a form gated with a newsletter option → they subscribe → you share high-quality content weekly → you monitor their engagement.

After months of warming up, you reach out:

"Hey, you’ve been reading our newsletter for four months, and I saw you’re hiring Sales Reps. We offer outsourced reps. Worth a chat?"

This is no longer cold outreach. It’s a relationship with a trigger.

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Each flow might last 3 to 6 months. That’s the point. The trust vector grows over time. And you’re not just another inbox interruption.

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Too many decision-makers means you need multi-layered outreach

In bigger companies, you're not just selling to one person. You're selling to the manager, the director, the C-level – each with different priorities and risk tolerance.

A manager might love your tool. But if the CFO has never heard of you? The deal’s dead in the water. 

The solution lies in multi-layered outreach.

Actually, a McKinsey study notes that great content showcasing expertise can carry more weight with buyers than a salesperson’s pitch deck, especially in technical or high-stakes sales.

That’s why you should map out every buyer persona involved in the deal and build a multi-touch strategy that targets each one differently. 

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For example:

• Thought leadership content for executives
• Tactical use-cases for managers
• Budget justification templates for finance
• Security documentation for IT

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It’s not a copy. It’s the strategy

When cold outreach doesn’t work, most people blame copywriting: "It needs to be under 75 words." "Use this subject line." "Add {{firstName}} everywhere." And similar stuff. 

But the real problem is:

• You’re selling a product no one wants
• Or you’re selling a good product the wrong way
• Or you’re selling the right way, but way too early

So, your starting point shouldn’t be tweaking the copy. Start with your go-to-market reality. Rethink your strategy. Because cold outreach isn’t dead – but how you’re doing it might be.

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P.S. We’re building a library of GTM playbooks so you can see what modern, effective outreach looks like across industries and funnel types. Stay tuned.